File image of Arjun Erigaisi and Magnus Carlsen during their rapid match at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
In a little less than six minutes and with just 20 moves on the board, Magnus Carlsen, the world’s greatest player of this generation, had waved the white flag of surrender in a blitz game. His conqueror, 21-year-old Arjun Erigaisi, had done the unthinkable: inflict a defeat on the World No.1, the Norwegian’s first at the Tata Steel Chess India tournament in 17 games across the rapid and blitz formats. Not to mention, Arjun Erigaisi was playing with black pieces.
In the span of those 20 moves, Arjun Erigaisi had made things deeply uncomfortable for Magnus Carlsen on the board. The World No.1 looked away into the sea of people seated on his left at the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata, muttered things to himself under his breath, shook his head in self-dejected annoyance and probably made a captured piece very nauseous by rapidly turning it over and over in his hand with the vigour of a spin bowler.
By the time the end came and a dejected Magnus Carlsen extended his hand across the board towards his conqueror, Carlsen’s king had been made to jog around from one square to another for survival in a way that Carlsen’s kings are not used to being treated. But at least the king had done some work in the game. Carlsen’s rooks — those sentries that stand in the corner of the board and get paid the big bucks for the damage they can inflict — were assassinated by Arjun’s knights without them even getting out of bed.
It was that sort of game that made even those watching it feel a little baffled. Tania Sachdev, who was on commentary duty for the Chess.com broadcast, at some point gasped: “Is it that simple?”
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, sitting next to her in commentary, shrugged: “It is that simple!”
INTERACTIVE: How Arjun Erigaisi beat Magnus Carlsen in just 20 moves
Arjun Erigaisi had started the game by opting for a French variation of the Sicilian Defence. His knights had started to bear down on Carlsen’s army from the 8th move with the kingside knight charging forward to g4 and then hopping over to the f2 square on the next move. On the 11th move, Magnus Carlsen lost his first rook. Carlsen responded with a blunder: offering an exchange of queens by pushing his queen to f4 on move 12.
Arjun Erigaisi chose to ignore that offer, instead giving Carlsen’s king a check. By the 14th move, Carlsen’s king was on the run. Two knights and Arjun’s queen had the white king in their sights.
Arjun’s king-side knight, having already accounted for one of Carlsen’s rooks, now started to chase Carlsen’s king.
Two moves later, Arjun’s queen-side knight had murdered a white knight and the second rook.
It was here that Magnus Carlsen decided to fight fire with fire and sent his queen forwards to attack in a desperate Hail Mary of a move. Three moves later, the game ended with Carlsen having just nine pieces left on the board (with both rooks, two additional pawns and a knight less). Barring a couple of pawns and a bishop, Arjun’s army was still unscathed.
Starting the day with a game of golf before sitting down at the chessboard!#tsci2024 #TSCI #tatasteelchessindia #chess #indianchess #kolkata #funday #golfing pic.twitter.com/Vw0CHxX0Np
— Tata Steel Chess India (@tschessindia) November 16, 2024
Magnus Carlsen started his Saturday with a round of golf in Kolkata after a successful rapid section, which he had won without breaking into a sweat. Then, he went to the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium and raced to the lead on the leaderboard after seven blitz games. He had defeated SL Narayanan, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer and Nihal Sarin while accepting draws against Wesley So and Daniil Dubov.
Then Arjun Erigaisi happened.
Arjun Erigaisi crushes Magnus Carlsen in 20 moves with the black pieces — the World no. 1’s 1st loss in #TataSteelChessIndia this year! https://t.co/FKdLhuE3sh pic.twitter.com/tUCb7T9a8R
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 16, 2024
“Clearly Magnus just forgot something in his prep,” said Anand in the commentary booth for Chess24. “He played something very fast and next thing he knew… knight f2 (Nf2, Arjun’s 14th move) is the kind of move that is so unintuitive.”
Just after winning the rapid section at the Tata Steel India tournament on Friday, Magnus Carlsen had spoken about how chuffed he was to defeat Arjun.
“The game against Arjun was certainly my favorite of the ones here. He’s an extremely dangerous player when he has the initiative, when he gets to attack, and I sort of willingly got into a position where he had the initiative. So I’m very happy that even though my play was obviously far from perfect, that I managed to handle the resulting complicated position better than he did and to get the win there,” said Carlsen who had famously called Arjun a “mad man on the chess board”.
On Saturday, Arjun justified that title.
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